Properties end up on the auction list if owners have not paid taxes since May 2016.

Homes that end up on the tax sale could be long-term vacant and/or blighted homes, and not the potential revenue stream or future home some investors envision.

Just because a person wins the auction, doesn’t mean they take immediate ownership of the property.

A winning bid gives you a tax lien on the property, not the deed, Nance said.

From the auction, the owner has a year to pay off the taxes on the property. That comes with extra fees, including another 15 percent charge on top of their unpaid taxes and paying off the fees associated with the sale.

In the case someone pays off their property taxes in the year between tax sales, the person who had a winning bid gets their money back plus another 10 percent.

In that year, the tax lien holder can’t step foot on the property. After that year, the work to obtain a tax title deed can start, and when that’s recorded, the winning bidder becomes the owner of the property. The Treasurer’s Office recommends a real estate attorney through the entire process.

What happens to the properties that don't sell at the auction?

The county can take possession of most properties if the taxes still aren’t paid off by Dec. 26. The county then gives some of the properties to Evansville Land Bank. which is a city-managed nonprofit that holds vacant and blighted properties for demolition and development.

The residential properties that don't sell this year will end up deeded to the city in August 2018.

The land bank just last week took possession of the 151 properties that didn't sell in the 2016 auction, said Kelley Coures, Department of Metropolitan Development director. Of those, 92 have structures the land bank will demolish.

Since the city formed the land bank, it has taken nearly 600 properties from the county that didn't sell at the county tax auction. The city demolishes the blighted homes and then tries to give the land to a developer, or at least a neighbor who will take over the land. The idea is to get the properties, many of which had cycled on the county's tax sale list for years.

But neither the county or the land bank take commercial properties.

Those commercial properties stay on the tax sale lists for years as owners don’t pay the taxes, since there is no legal or civil repercussions other than losing the property to the county or through tax sale.

Miller Plating is a prime example. The environmentally-contaminated industrial site in the middle of a low-income neighborhood on the north side has sat abandoned since 2007.

The owner, a defunct company, hasn't paid taxes on the properties since 2008 and now owe $1.2 million in unpaid property taxes. Of the 600 properties on tax sale, Miller Plating’s share is 28 percent of all unpaid taxes on the list.

A Courier & Press 2015 investigation detailed how the owner of the abandoned site, Dan Stocks, left Evansville and evaded liability from an expensive EPA cleanup because he was shielded by limited liability company (LLC) laws.

The tax auction is Aug. 24. Bidders need to register ahead of the sale. There’s an online form available through the Vanderburgh County Auditor’s website, or in person at least an hour before the tax sale begins.

You can’t pay your bid off using a credit card, either. It must be cash or check, and you must pay the entire amount by 3 p.m. the day of the tax sale.

Taxpayers who want to get their home or property off the list must pay off the owed taxes in full by 3 p.m. Aug. 24.